Biofuels Digest Special Report on Aviation Biofuels: Research

Researchers have framed the emissions problem facing airlines that are prompting the aggressive investigation of biofuels. The Manchester Metropolitan University Centre for Air Transport and the Environment and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research concluded that global aviation have been responsible for 4.7 percent of the global mean temperature rise between 1940 and 2005. The researchers also found that global aviation CO2 emissions grew 42 percent from 1990 and 2005. Currently, aviation is believed to have been responsible 2.8 percent of global warming impact.

In the short term, US Transportation Secretary Mary Peters last July announced that the X Prize Foundation had been selected to develop incentives leading to a breakthrough strategy in renewable aviation fuels. “The race to refuel American aviation is on,” the Secretary said, “and our hope is that the X PRIZE will jump-start investment and spur innovation. It will be a competition that everyone wins, because a breakthrough in alternative jet fuels is a potential game-changer that could bring lower airline fuel costs, greater U.S. energy independence, and cleaner air.”

The prize was developed as part of the FAA’s NextGen project, which among its goals will limit the environmental impact of an expected doubling of air traffic capacity by 2025. The X PRIZE Foundation will work with members of the FAA’s Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuel Initiative (CAAFI), among others, and will deliver a report by summer 2009 identifying a prize structure and sponsors. The X Prize Foundation established and awarded the $10 million Ansari X Prize for suborbital spaceflight.

In the mid-term, Onera, an aviation research company, will lead a 19-organization consortium in the study of mid-term opportunities for biofuels deployment. The Sustainable Way for Alternative Fuel and Energy in Aviation study will focus on the feasibility of multiple alternative fuel sources in Europe, in a 26-month project funded by the European Commission. Consortium members include Bauhaus Luftfahrt, German Aerospace Center (DLR), University of Sheffield, Airbus, Air France, EADS-IW, Embraer, Snecma, Rolls-Royce, IATA and Shell.

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